One of the biggest obstacles I have encountered as an equine massage therapist is getting my clients to do the follow up exercises that their horses need in order to keep them on the right track between massage sessions. Let’s face it, most of us have a limited amount of time to spend with our horses, and we’d much rather be playing and having fun with them than doing boring stretches and warm up excercises.

I have been a student of the Parelli Natural Horsemanship Program, studying with 4-Star Parelli Senior Instructor Christi Rains since 2004. Since most of my clients are Parelli students as well, I began to look for ways to incorporate targeted follow up exercises and play sessions for my clients to use with their horses. I found a number of the Parelli games useful in a therapeutic way.  Parelli Natural Horsemanship strives to provide a balanced learning experience for the horse and human – mentally, emotionally and physically.  This philosophy parallels greatly the goals of the equine bodyworker in improving the balance, posture and performance of our equine clients.

In the coming months, I will be developing a series of articles geared toward providing horse owners and professionals with exercises that they can incorporate into their training/play sessions with their horses.  

These articles will focus on:

• improving spinal mobility
• improving pelvic placement
• increasing flexibility and range of motion
• improving collection

Common problems that these exercises will help improve:

• picking up one canter lead over another
• problems with circling or bending in a particular direction
• horses that can do lateral flexion better on one side than the other
• braciness under saddle
• lateral movements such as sideways, leg yields and half passes
• scapula rotated forward

If you’ve encountered any of the above issues with your horse, make sure and subscribe to my blog and ensure that you don’t miss out on these valuable equine massage tips developed to help you improve your horse’s performance and have fun playing with your horse at the same time.  

Lisa Carter is a Certified Equine Massage Therapist (CEMT), with multiple certifications from several different equine bodywork schools.  She incorporates her knowledge and experience with Parelli Natural Horsemanship, equine bodywork and as a veterinary technician to provide her clients with the resources they need to make informed decisions for their horses.  She encourages and facilitates network building between equine health care professionals, working together to find the best combination of therapies to meet the needs of the “whole horse”.  

Are you ready to get better results with your horse?  Put your equine health care team to work so you and your horse can be doing what you were meant to.  Click here to get started!